


cheesecake and sweetie pie-rates

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Baking, Birthday Party, F/M, Identity Reveal, Podfic Welcome, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 23:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20397718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Nathalie'd forgotten Adrien's birthday again. It probably should have hurt Adrien more that Father hadn't remembered than that Nathalie hadn't. Though at least this year he didn't have a photoshoot scheduled? And hopefully there wouldn't be another akuma?Fifteen minutes before lunch hour, when Marinette would be able to run home for the cheesecake she'd made while Nino and Kim snuck Adrien to the park for his party, an akuma turned up at the Trocadéro.





	cheesecake and sweetie pie-rates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bowser14456](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bowser14456/gifts).

"Are you sure this is what you want to do, Marinette?" Tikki asked for the fifth time.

"Not really," Marinette said for the third time. What did Tikki know that Marinette didn't? "But it's a pretty basic cheesecake." She ran down the ingredients list again, checking against everything on the kitchen counter and reviewing the instructions. "Sugar, butter, beat, vanilla, flour, mix, bake. Cream cheese, sugar, beat, eggs, mix, Camembert, vanilla, stir, pour, bake. Refrigerate at least three hours."

Satisfied she wasn't going to ruin this through missing an ingredient, Marinette measured sixty-five grams of granulated sugar into the mixing bowl. "As long as I get it into the refrigerator before I leave for school, it'll be ready in time for lunch."

"…If you're sure," said Tikki.

"I could make an ordinary cheesecake instead, I guess." Marinette couldn't blame Tikki for being dubious. This _was_ a new-to-Marinette recipe, and that always spelled disaster. "But Camembert's his favorite."

* * *

Nathalie'd forgotten his birthday again.

It probably should have hurt Adrien more that Father hadn't remembered than that Nathalie hadn't. Though at least this year he didn't have a photoshoot scheduled? And hopefully there wouldn't be another akuma?

—Worse, Adrien realized as the morning went on, no one else seemed to remember either. It wasn't that he could blame anyone for wanting not to think about it: the Bubbler had threatened all his friends, after all, and that had been an early enough attack no one was used to it yet. And Adrien had found out months after the fact that one of Nino's neighbors' kids got panic attacks now: the bubble kidnapping the little girl's mother had knocked over a lit candle on its way out the window.

(Chat Noir had not mentioned this discovery to Ladybug. She had enough to worry about when her focus during akuma attacks stayed firmly on the akuma.)

But _someone_ should have thought to wish him a happy birthday, right? If not Nino or Chloé, then—well, maybe not Marinette; someday Adrien would figure out why he kept upsetting her, or else he would upset her badly enough she'd remember there's a reason _friendship is transitive_ is Geek Social Fallacy 4 and stop forcing herself to talk to him. Marinette kept the calendar with the whole class's recurring commitments, though, and he _knew_ she counted birthdays—could anyone fault him for hoping she'd remember his?

* * *

Fifteen minutes before lunch hour, when Marinette would be able to run home for the cheesecake while Nino and Kim snuck Adrien to the park, an akuma turned up at the Trocadéro.

Chat Noir beat Ladybug there, she noted, surveying the scene, and either it'd been a harder fight so far than it looked or he was already having a bad day. He brightened right up when he noticed Ladybug, though: "Try not to step on any Legos, my Lady!"

Given the volume of Lego bricks scattered across the ground, that might be difficult. "What are we dealing with here?"

He whirled to smash through the bow of the Lego pirate ship whose mast was twice his height: "I think someone stepped on a Lego. And I literally just demolished that ship!"

Ladybug whirled her yo-yo shield, eyeing the racecar reassembling itself a couple of meters away. "Kitty? You deserve a raze."

Chat wrecked the rest of the ship in two more blows, grinning.

After the battle, Ladybug beckoned Chat Noir to follow her up to a rooftop: "Bad day?" she asked.

He shrugged. "It's—let's say it's the sort of day you'd expect your friends to say something about, and nobody has."

"Your friends suck," Ladybug decided. "—Hey, do you have anywhere you need to be for the next hour or so? Because I happen to know my classmates are throwing somebody a party. Northeast corner of Place des Vosges. Nobody will mind if you crash it."

Chat's forehead creased. "Are you sure?"

"Well, try not to make yourself the center of attention? But you knew that. And you won't want the cheesecake," she added: Chat Noir, she knew, did not appreciate Camembert, nor did he much want to. If she ever got him and Adrien in the same room, that would probably be the next 'does pineapple belong on pizza' war. "But you might want to pretend you do so you can sneak Plagg _oh no I'm late_—"

The cheesecake was still in the kitchen fridge!

* * *

Chat found the party easily enough; he recognized everyone there. Not that anyone seemed to be having fun: "Are you sure you checked the art room?" Nino was asking someone on the phone. "No, Juleka, I know you wouldn't lie about this, I just—where _is_ he?"

Marinette ran up to the table full of deliciousness, thumped down a T&S bakery box, and leaned on the table, catching her breath. "I'm here!" she told Rose. "I'm here, I lost track of time—"

"It's okay, Marinette," Rose told her. "No one will even notice you're late."

Chat sidled up to the table as Marinette pulled out her phone, thumbed its screen on, and showed Rose the time. "Afternoon," he said cheerily. "What's the occasion?"

"If we can't find the guest of honor, there might not be one," Rose told him. Then turned to see who she was addressing: "Chat Noir! Hi! Could we ask a favor?"

"Sure."

"—Wait." Marinette stared at Rose. "What do you mean we can't find him?"

"He evaporated before lunch hour. Like, we all know we saw him in class, but not since, and he isn't answering his phone."

"Oh no," groaned Marinette. "He heard I planned the party and he decided he didn't want anything to do with it and—"

"I'm sure that's not true," Chat interrupted. "Should I go try to track him down?"

Rose bounced in place. "Yes, please!"

"…I hope nothing's happened," Marinette told the bakery box. "I—"

"—Marinette?" asked Chat.

"Nothing bad happened," Rose assured her. "You always focus on the worst-case scenarios, and they never happen. He's fine. He just…" She trailed off.

"You don't _know_ that," snapped Marinette, and turned on her heel to stalk over to an empty shaded bench and throw herself down.

Chat followed. "Marinette, what's wrong?"

"He's not here." She pressed her hands to her face; Chat caught her wrists before she could start nibbling on her fingertips, a bad habit Adrien had noticed her picking up and didn't know what to do about. "He knew we were throwing him a party, and he isn't _here_. So either he decided he _wouldn't_ come, or there's some reason he _can't_. And either way it sounds like he didn't _tell_ anyone!" She looked up at him, eyes wide and damp. "Something's wrong, Chat. Something has to be wrong."

"…You sound really worried," Chat said slowly. Adrien hadn't known anything about any party, which must mean he wasn't invited. And since Marinette planned it—damn it what had he ever _done_ to her?

"He's important to me." Marinette chewed on her lip a moment, staring down at Chat's hand around both of hers, then flicked her gaze around them. (No one else was near.) "In a lot of the same ways I told you you are, the weekend Papa got akumatized."

"Oh." Wait a minute. "Doesn't Luka do volunteer work Tuesdays?" Adrien definitely remembered hearing about that, anyway.

"—Yes? He said not to worry about picking a time he could come?"

"…I'm confused."

Marinette opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. "—_Oh_! No, Chat. Just—just go find Adrien, please? At least find out why he's missing his birthday party?"

…

…

…

"—Sure thing, Princess," Chat managed, and bolted for cover.

He dropped his transformation in an alley half a block away. "Did you know about this, Plagg?"

"Which part?"

Whatever. "Was I supposed to know about this?" Evidently, since Marinette seemed certain Adrien _had_, but—

"Kit, between you and this brick wall, sometimes it seems like the perceptive one is the brick wall."

Adrien thumped his head against the offending wall. "Come on," he said, annoyed. "There's plenty of cheese on that food table."

Predictably, the moment Adrien got in line of sight of Place des Vosges, his classmates mobbed him. Ten minutes later, when enough of them got distracted by Nino starting the music, Adrien slipped over to join Marinette at the food table. "You look upset," he told her.

She nodded. "You said Chat Noir found you?" He had. "Where did he go?"

"He had somewhere he wanted to be." That wasn't a lie. Not exactly.

Marinette's shoulders slumped. "Oh. I thought— Never mind, not important." She breathed in, straightening, and smiled at him. "So I don't know if this came out right—I was kind of up half the night making sure it came out at all, and it's sort of an experimental recipe? I hope it's good enough…"

Adrien glanced over the table: there wasn't any cheesecake—maybe Ladybug was misinformed?—but there were several T&S bakery boxes, most of which were open so people could grab pastries as they liked. "Everything I've ever tasted that you made has been delicious." Some of it wasn't as good as what her father made, but Adrien wasn't about to say so. "Which is it?"

"Oh! Uh—" Marinette opened one of the bakery boxes. "Here! Camembert cheesecake!"

…

…

…

"—Marinette?"

"Adrien?" She was watching him now, confused and worried. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing—"

And goddamn if that wasn't Plagg laughing his furry little tail off, secure in the knowledge that as long as Plagg stayed hidden behind Adrien's rib cage, no one else would notice and there was nothing Adrien himself could do about it.

"Just—you made Camembert cheesecake?"

Marinette nodded. "You said Camembert's your favorite."

He had. He absolutely had. He was absolutely lying through his teeth, but it was the sort of lie he knew Ladybug would forgive him.

Adrien lowered his voice. "A little red birdy told Chat Noir there'd be cheesecake at this party."

Marinette blinked.

"She made a point of saying _he_ wouldn't want any of the cheesecake, but—for reasons that are none of anyone else's concern—he would want to take some cheesecake home with him." Adrien gestured the length of the food table. "This is the only cheesecake here. And no one saw it till now. Except you."

"—Oh no," Marinette whispered, her breaths getting quicker, shallower. "Oh no no no—"

"Marinette? Marinette!" Adrien caught her by the shoulders, something he knew worked when Ladybug was edging towards panic: give her something else to focus on, something physical. Usually he'd dig his claws in, confident in her armor to keep him from hurting her (and in her assurance that this trick worked better that way), but that wasn't an option right now. "Marinette, what's wrong?"

She caught her breath, trembling. "Don't tell anyone? Please?"

"I won't," Adrien promised. Why would it matter that no one find out Marinette had told Ladybug about making a Camembert cheesecake for—

—for a party _Ladybug's classmates_ were throwing.

Marinette had planned this party. Their whole class was here. That made for an invite list with a remarkable shortage of people Ladybug had never de-akumatized.

Wherever Ladybug needed to be after today's akuma, she'd said she was running late. And Marinette had arrived well after everyone but Adrien himself.

Adrien leaned down to her ear. "Camembert isn't my favorite," he told her. "Not even a little. But I happen to know a kitten who will be _very_ happy to steal that whole cheesecake."

If she wasn't Ladybug, she should assume he meant Chat Noir. If she was—

Marinette swallowed. "Does this kitten break enough things one could, could think he—he works in demolition and—and maybe deserves a raze?"

"Right you arrr," Adrien said before he could think better of it.

She shook her head. "I don't know why I'm even surprised," she told him, and Adrien abruptly found himself being very fiercely kissed.

Cheering erupted.

Marinette buried her red face in his neck, still on tiptoe. "Ignore them. _Please_."

"Wow," said Adrien, dazed, and narrowly avoided crashing into the food table when his knees quit. "Wow," he repeated, pulling his Lady into his lap. "Best birthday ever."

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if the [Camembert cheesecake](https://relish.com/recipes/french-cheesecake/) recipe is any _good_, but it does exist.
> 
> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [It’s Not a Surprise if Everyone Knows](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20401888) by [GalahadWilder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder)


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